Chilocorus bipustulatus
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Chilocorus bipustulatus, the heather ladybird, is a beetle species belonging to the family Coccinellidae. These beetles are found in most of the Palearctic realm, (Europe, North Africa, Asia north of the Himalayan foothills, and northern and central Arabian Peninsula),
and has been introduced to tropical Africa, Hawaii, and North America. The elytra of this small beetle are a shiny brown with two reddish-orange spots on each elytron (hence the Latin word bipustulatus, meaning two-blistered). Sometime three spots run in an horizontal line and join into two larger stains.
The mature larva is about 5 millimetres (0.20 in) long. Wintering occurs as an adult. The adults grow up to 3–5 millimetres (0.12–0.20 in) long and can be encountered from May through October. In Europe it occurs in fruit gardens, pine forests, and stone quarries. In Poland it was found on grasses, low vegetation and bushes, on heath lands, under flakes of bark on pines and fruit trees, occasionally in leaf litter and in moss
Heather ladybirds feed on aphids and scale insects (mainly belonging to the family Coccidae and Diaspididae) and is often introduced as a biological control in cases of infestation. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Heather Ladybird sighting in Istanbul on a given day, based on 30 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 44th most-seen of the 266 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Heather Ladybird in Istanbul on a given day, against under 5% in January, the lowest month.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Heather Ladybird sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 21 cities where we can rate Heather Ladybird sightings, Istanbul has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Bucharest (Romania, about 10%) and Rome (Italy, about 10%).
Same family: Coccinellidae
The closest relatives of the Heather Ladybird that you can see in Istanbul (family Coccinellidae, Lady Beetles) are Seven-Spotted Lady Beetle (about 30%), Asian Lady Beetle (about 30%) and Two-Spotted Lady Beetle (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Heather Ladybird is recorded against all the insects logged in Istanbul (30 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
